John Pierpont Morgan (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric. After financing the creation of the Federal Steel Company he merged in 1901 with the Carnegie Steel Company and several other steel and iron businesses, including Consolidated Steel and Wire Company owned by William Edenborn, to form the United States Steel Corporation.
Morgan died in Rome, Italy, in his sleep in 1913 at the age of 75, leaving his fortune and business to his son, John Pierpont "Jack" Morgan, Jr., and bequeathing his mansion and large book collections to The Morgan Library & Museum in New York.
At the height of Morgan's career during the early 1900s, he and his partners had financial investments in many large corporations and were accused by critics of controlling the nation's high finance. He directed the banking coalition that stopped the Panic of 1907. He was the leading financier of the Progressive Era, and his dedication to efficiency and modernization helped transform American business. Morgan redefined conservatism in terms of financial prowess coupled with strong commitments to religion and high culture.
Nikola Tesla (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and futurist. He was an important contributor to the use of commercial electricity, and is best known for developing the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system. His many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were based on the theories of electromagnetic technology discovered by Michael Faraday. Tesla's patents and theoretical work also formed the basis of wireless communication and the radio.
Born in the village of Smiljan (now part of Gospić, present day Croatia), Tesla was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth and later became an American citizen. Because of his 1894 demonstration of short range wireless communication through radio and as the eventual victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as one of the greatest electrical engineers who worked in America. He pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. In the United States during this time, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture. Tesla demonstrated wireless energy transfer to power electronic devices in 1891, and aspired to intercontinental wireless transmission of industrial power in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project.
Plot
The most expensive party in American history takes place at the newly opened Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City on Feb 10th 1897. This elaborate costume ball is attended by nearly 1,000 of New York's wealthiest citizens, many billionaires by today's standards, all dressed in costumes celebrating European royalty. In a single night they drink their way through 4,000 bottles of the finest champagne, and gorge on a 28-course feast fit for any king. But this epic display of excess comes during the worst depression America has known at this time, and not everyone is applauding the show. The host of the night is Cornelia Bradley-Martin, heiress to a vast fortune and a woman on a mission. She hopes to provide a much-needed stimulus to New York's lagging economy-and to be crowned "Queen" of an exclusive high society known as "The Four Hundred". But she's given herself only three weeks to prepare this astonishing event. The logistics alone for such a massive party are remarkable even by today's standards, and to add to the challenge, on the very night of the ball a snowstorm descends upon the metropolis. Today, the same hotel still puts on huge events that parallel this famous party. The annual Viennese Opera Ball is one of the highlights of New York's social calendar and attracts dignitaries, diplomats and débutantes. Six hundred guests gather every year paying up to $25,000 per table to charity in celebration of a European tradition that goes back nearly two centuries. But what are the parallels with the famous Bradley Martin Ball and what are the differences? Jes Gordon and Marcie Rudell are two of New York's elite party planners. They both put on parties costing thousands of dollars. So how would they cope with planning America's most expensive party if they had just three weeks to make it happen? A thousand invitations need to be sent before the advent of email, beautifully tailored dresses have to be produced by hand, and food needs to be delivered and kept fresh without the help of refrigeration. Perhaps most challenging of all, a battle for public opinion must be won...or there may be consequences for the night's epic indulgence. This one-hour special goes inside the machinations of the Bradley Martins' record-setting costume ball in America's number one metropolis to learn what it takes to party like the rich and famous.
Keywords: viennese-opera-ball, waldorf-astoria-hotel
Who says the afterlife is painless? Megahertz.